Arguin' in Hostile Territory
Seven didn’t particularly like talking before shooting. She would do it, but she didn’t particularly care for it. Unlike her father, she found words to fall short when compared to bullets. That didn’t mean she didn’t see the practicality of it, the right words to the right person could cause them to give her whatever she wanted. Still, when the choice was presented, small groups are often easier dealt with by force than with false pleasantries.
The recoil of her rifle kept her grounded, the people running and hiding looking more like ants than people. One after another fell as her rifle boomed. She was right, they were frenzied, with both Cooper and her firing, the bounty collectors were having to divide and fight back on the fly.
Slowly, the sound of gunshots stopped completely. Sev shouldered her pack, keeping her guard up still, she started to walk where she knew Cooper was. Once they meet up, they’d move through the building together, following Sev’s Pipboy. God she hated that thing, she didn’t know how Lucy put up with it, it was heavy and caused her to have to constantly adjust her aim.
Sev rounded the building, seeing Cooper check the bodies to make sure they were actually dead. Dogmeat and Rex were happily chopping away at the dead bodies strung around. “We should head inside, I can see where Lucy is,” Sev spoke, looking down at the glorified watch on her wrist.
Cooper rolled his shoulders, “we should check the building first for more of ‘em.” Lucy was much better at wasteland living, but she was still green compared to Sev.
“She's got to learn, if she doesn’t, she’ll die.” Sev spoke, looking at the building in front of them, “nobody else is going to teach her how to.”
Cooper wanted to roll his eyes at the women, “and this is my problem? She ain’t my responsibility.” He retorted.
Sev spun around to face him, looking angry, a look that she didn’t have too often with Cooper, “if she dies before she finishes what she needs to, I swear to god Cooper I will personally see to a bullet in your head.” Her words were sharp, and maybe she didn’t fully mean them, but she meant a good bit of it.
Cooper tensed at her words, it seemed like Lucy was becoming her weak point, that didn’t mean he was gonna let a threat slide. He fully stood up, his gun having already been in his hand, but now held more at the ready. “Ya see that honey, that shit ain’t gonna slide. You wanna dick measure? cause mine’s a whole hell of a lot bigger.” Cooper spoke with a smirk that would frighten off most other people, “now, you wanna do what I said and get a move on?”
Sev, while not underestimating his ability, did question if he would do it. “You’re not gonna shoot me, you can’t do it,” Sev took steps towards Cooper until she was practically pressed against his chest.
“That something you willin’ to risk? Most people who see me coming run the other way, you think daddy can get you out of this one like last time? Hell, I’d kill you and Lucy for the bounties if ya weren’t helping me on my goal, and I really only need Lucy for that, so I’d watch that smart mouth of yours.” Cooper said, and while he wasn’t much taller than her, he’d use that to his advantage to look down at her.
Sev had it, his push point, “so why not help Lucy be better at killing? Better yet, you still haven’t pointed that gun at me. So come on, if you don’t need me then shoot me. I don’t have the pull in New Vegas anymore, and you know how to reach your goal. So do it, shoot me dead, tell Lucy that I wanted you to. Six isn’t here to stop you, and it isn’t like I’m social. Not one person would miss me if you killed me right now.”
Before Sev could even inhale after talking, Cooper had whipped his handgun towards her and fired. The bullet soared past Sev, hitting the booth behind her with a loud bang. “Are you happy now? That what you wanted?”
Sev responded with an easy smile, “very, I knew you cared about us at least a little bit.”
Cooper sighed, his gun lowered to rest more casually in his hand, “I should have known you had something up your sleeve, always running two steps ahead.” Cooper spoke, a small smile pulling at his lip.
“Just needed to prove something, maybe to me, but maybe to you as well. We can do your plan, but we should spend the time to toughen her up, it will help all of us,” Sev spoke, turning to walk towards the door entrance, “and Cooper, it was nice to hear your voice again, without the fake southern drawl.”
Cooper hadn’t even realized that he had dropped the accent, but of course she had noticed it even if he didn’t. He just shook his head and followed behind her. “I thought you liked my southern drawl, you gonna tell me that me arguin’ with you with this accent doesn’t get you goin’?”
Sev didn’t respond, but rather she kept walking until the booth that Cooper had shot started to talk. Sev jumped at the noise and Cooper already had his gun pulled before the realization dawned on her, “you’re Festus?” This was not what she had expected at all.
“Well howdy ma’am, I am Festus. Have you wrangled up enough bottle caps to receive your prize?” The machine spoke, his words glitching and stuttering.
Sev took the small satchel of blue star caps and shook them into the collector. She remembered counting 49, but maybe she miscounted, it was worth a shot.
“Partner, that’s not enough blue star bottle caps, please try again later.” Festus spoke, not even dispensing the caps that had already been inserted.
“Well can we go in?” Sev questioned, feeling annoyed at this exchange already.
“No can do partner, this is a serious business, we don’t just let anyone in.” Festus responded, his voice quickly becoming grating on Sev’s ears.
Sev looked at Cooper, gesturing slightly angrily at the annoying animatronic. While she may have started the argument between her and Cooper, she did still have all the adrenaline from it.
Cooper shook his head, looking at the robot, “do you give tours for celebrities?”
Festus seemed to know that someone else was talking to him, turning his head towards Cooper in an unnatural way, “why yes we do partner.”
Cooper didn’t know if this robot could see or not, so he made his move, an arm slung over Sev’s shoulder, “well I’ll have you know that I’m Cooper Howard, and the woman with me is my wife. Now I’d really appreciate y’all lettin’ us in,” Cooper spoke, him saying his own name like that left a sick feeling on his tongue.
“I apologize Mr. Howard, communist are not allowed in this here factory,” Festus responded.
Cooper sighed, “I’m not a communist.”
“No communist sympathizers either Mr. Howard,” Festus said in response, his voice almost sounding angry.
Festus couldn’t get another peep out before Cooper had shot a bullet into the center of the robot’s throat, “Well then, I’d say we can go in now,” Cooper spoke. “Stay,” Cooper followed with, commanding the two dogs who were honestly too busy eating to have paid attention to him.
The two pulled the doors open, stepping into the building, “so you were a communist?” Sev spoke, looking at the ghoul.
“Went to a few meetings after feeling a bit put off by Vault-Tec, not like I was a card carrying member,” Cooper responded, ready to just get this day over with.
They moved through the halls, quiet and practiced. This was something they had multiple times, even if they weren’t often doing it together. Searching, shooting, killing was something both of them were quite used to.
Nothing especially stood out, but it was hard to see with the lights so dim. So far, every room they searched has no one in it, nor had they seen any signs of people being there. Lucy was on the other side of the building according to the Pipboy, she hadn’t moved at all since they came in.
Eventually, they found the door to a large industrial walkin refrigerator, and the door was cold. Sev figured that the bounty service didn’t know how to reroute the power, but when she cracked the door open, she realized she was sorely mistaken.
The scent of iron washed over the two, strong and pungent. The sight was horrific, even to Cooper who had waded through over 200 years of shit. People hanging up on meat hooks wasn’t the horrific part, but these people were flayed open. Sliced up in a sadistic way. On the back of the freezer, stretched tattoos that had been skinned off people were displayed like an art piece.
“Bounty hunters don’t do this kind of stuff right?” Sev spoke, holding back her vomit at the grotesque sight and smell.
“Some do, but this wasn’t a hunter, they are all cut the same. Those collectors were torturing them,” Cooper spoke, closing the door.
“Let's work our way to Lucy, we’ll take the caps that were left here for the bounty and head to Primm in the morning. Don’t want to stay here any longer than we need to.” Sev said, turning to go back looking for more people.
“Sounds like a plan honey,” Cooper responded, his gun more at the ready then before, now knowing what fate they could have if they were caught off guard. “But next time, let's just sell shit for caps,” Cooper added with a smirk.
“Yeah, maybe that would be for the best,” Sev said back, really not wanting to do stuff like this again.
They kept going in and out of rooms, looking around to see if anyone was there. The factory was oddly silent however. The only sound either of them could hear was the sounds of their own steps.
They were getting closer to where Lucy’s Pipboy was detected, but as they rounded the hallway, they saw a body.
Both of them hurried over, looking at the body they recognized as the boss of this place. Cooper flipped him over, showing a knife handle embedded into his chest. Sev pulled the handle of the knife, not focusing on the squelching noise the body made. “One of yours Cooper,” Sev told him, cleaning the blade on the dead man's shirt and passing it to him.
“That means Lucy killed him, told ya we didn’t need to look for ‘er immediately, come on, let’s move the body and get her out of the closet,” Cooper spoke.
They grabbed the body, dragging it away from the door in order to make it easier to open. Cooper pulled the handle of the door, then when he realized it was locked, slammed the butt of his gun against the handle so it broke off.
He pulled the door open as Sev moved to peak in, and when Sev saw Lucy she couldn’t stop the gasp that escaped her lips. The back of her head was visible to them, and the back of her hair and vault suit was coated in a drying layer of blood. “Lucy, you okay?” Sev asked hesitantly, turning the flashlight on her Pipboy on and moving into the closet to face her.
Lucy’s hands were palm up, covered in blood that Sev couldn’t tell was her own or the dead man in the hallways, “Lucy, are you okay?”
Lucy tilted her head up slightly, wincing at the movement, “the man, the man with the nice shoes, is he okay?” Lucy questioned, her voice shaking with emotions.
“He’s dead darlin’, you did good, come on, gotta get a stimpak into ya,” Cooper spoke, finally piping in as he rifled through his saddle bag for one of the stimpaks he kept on him.
“I killed him, I actually killed him,” Lucy spoke as Sev looked into her eyes. Lucy’s eyes had widened for a second, before they seemed to unfocus as Lucy’s eyes fluttered shut before her upper body fell forward into Sev’s arms.
As soon as Sev saw Lucy’s body relaxing, she moved to grab the woman's shoulders. “Give her the stimpak, she passed out.” Sev spoke. With Lucy’s head now rested on Sev’s shoulder, Cooper was able to see how bad the head injury was. It was bad, even with a stimpak she was likely concussed.
Cooper still moved and injected the stimpak into her shoulder, near her neck. He carefully moved until he was able to get a safe grip on Lucy’s body, and in an oddly gentle and careful manner, lifted her into his arms making sure to not move her head. “Come on, let's lay her down back in that room with the bedrolls,” Cooper said.
Sev stood up from her crouched position, and while she didn’t mention it, she did notice that Cooper had once again dropped the accent.